Primary menu

Herman Miller Celle Chair – 100 Years in the Making?

When you look at the simple flowing lines of the Herman Miller Celle chair, it would be easy to underestimate the historic pedigree of this adjustable, ergonomic chair. There is indeed 100 years of history that contributed to the birth of this modern-day piece of office furniture.

Its roots started way back in 1905 in Zeeland, Michigan with the opening of the Star Furniture Company. The company made good quality, traditional style furniture which was popular at the time.

During that same year a young man by the name of Dirk Jan DePree was hired by the company in the capacity of office clerk. The Star Furniture Company was also renamed Michigan Star Furniture Company.

Nearly 20 years later in 1923 this humble clerk persuaded his father in law, Herman Miller to buy the majority of shares in the Michigan Star Furniture Company.

Dirk Jan DePree became the company’s first President and renamed it the Herman Miller Furniture Company.

It was during the Great Depression of the 1930’s that Dirk J DePree talked with Gilbert Rohde, to discuss the best course of action for the Company to take during those hard times of economic uncertainty.

As it turned out those talks were pivotal to the future success of the company. Gilbert Rohde convinced Dirk J DePree that the way forward would be to concentrate the company’s efforts on furniture more suited to modern-day tastes emerging in America at that time.

A major step forward towards the development of the now popular Celle chair would come in 1942 when Herman Miller entered the office-furniture market with a design by Gilbert Rohde called The Executive Office Group.

1976 saw the emergence of a new era of ergonomic seating from Herman Miller called the Ergon chair. This chair proved so popular that Time magazine gave it their Design of the Decade award.

The Ergon was followed in 1994 by the iconic Aeron chair which also won a Design of the Decade award. The award this time came in 1999 by Business Week magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)

In 2005, exactly 100 years after the story began, Herman Miller Inc. introduced the beautiful Celle chair (pronounced “Sellah”) designed by the innovative designer Jerome Caruso.

The Celle chair is an amazing 99% recyclable and contains more than 30% of recycled materials.

Jerome designed a revolutionary system of molded polymer “cells” and loops that responds to your body weight and movement. It’s an exceptional design and provides an exceptional degree of comfort but without the exceptional price tag that you might expect.

Since its introduction in 2005 the Celle chair has won many awards including the Industrial Design Excellence Award (Bronze) in June 2006 by Business Week and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).

It may have been 100 years in the making – but the Herman Miller Celle chair was definitely worth the wait!